Ok, so this is going to be a bit of an essay but please keep reading as I really need any help I can get.

For the last 8 years I have been suffering from an undiagnosed stomach problem. It started at the age of 15 with me doubling over in pain randomly and has progressed from there. Between then and now my symptoms have developed to the following:
* Cramping
* Extreme hunger pangs, even immediately after a meal
* 10-15 bowel movements a day which start the moment I wake up and continue til I go to bed (N.B. these movements are NOT diarrhoea and I am not suffering from constipation. Each movement is solid and always a large volume)
* Passing gas (both with and without mucous)
* Indigestion/heartburn
* An intense pain underneath sternum.
*Headaches
* Dizziness
* Fatigue
* Fever
* Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.
* Weight gain (15kg within a year, no change in diet)
* Dropping feeling in lower bowel.
* Cramping and feeling of air moving in rectum.
* Very noisy stomach (grumbling, churning, etc)

I'm a 23 year old male, I eat a healthy diet and have in the past tried various dietary changes and restrictions to no avail. This has come to the point where I have had to quit my job and my university study as I am unable to attend due to my stomach. I have no social life and have trouble leaving the house at all as my stomach is such a mess all the time I have to constantly be around a toilet. I have been to doctors, gastroenterologist's plus had all the natural therapies you can name.

I desperately need help. I can't go on like this and no one seems to be able to help me. Any information anyone has for me or possible treatments/solutions would be so very appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Mike

*** I see over 70 people have read my post with no replies. As I said before, I'm beyond desperate, if anyone has anything at all to contribute it was be great. I have no idea what else I can do.

Can you post some examples of what you eat? Do you eat low fat, dairy etc..? Are you taking any meds? (especially any meds like proton pump inhibitors for the acid reflux?) Do you have problems with malabsorption like anemia or low iron?

You must remember that doctors in their practice of medicine usually treat symptoms and rarely get to the root cause of conic issues such as the ones you display. You therefore must take it upon your self to discover on your own what the possible root causes might be. This is a long process but well worth the effort if you are serious about discovering what causes you to have medical issues as you have described.

When it comes to the problems you are experiencing, they are common with reactions to described by others. Where I am not going to point you in a specific direction, I am going to provide you the tools to figure out what is causing your reactions.

1) What medical attention did you receive before all these issues appeared? Vaccinations perhaps or a medical procedure? This is an important starting point

2) Exactly what is included in your daily diet? What are you ingesting on a daily basis? Be specific about this one, including research on the web concerning the exact contents of prepacked foods. Write down every thing you eat for a period of two weeks.... everything don't assume anything is safe.

3) Define your home environment and include everything, carpet, cloth drapes and such, cloth furniture, wall coverings, stuffed animals, lamp shades, anything that is not a hard surface and then everything that is a hard surface.

4) This is very important, did you move to the basement when you were a teen in order to get your own room? If you living quarters has mold present, it can cause some of the symptoms you are describing.

5) Now comes the process of elimination

First strip every thing in your environment down to hard surfaces ONLY! then clean those surfaces with bleach and water every day for two weeks. Hard floors (no carpets of any kind), blinds instead of drapes, no stuffed animals, you will need a bedroll not a mattress, sleep on white cotton sheets and use allergy mold free pillows with cotton pillow cases which can be washed. only hard items which can be cleaned with bleach and water should enter your living space, this includes electronics. Today people love their computers, especially young people. Yours should include a keyboard with a flexible cover which can be cleaned. No ceiling fans, clean the windows and seals and the floors and baseboards at least every other day. No pets are allowed in your space until you are much better (normal).

Second obtain all new clothes and use only cloth that can be cleaned in bleach and water -cotton- Wash everything daily that you come in contact with with a bleach cleaner without any fragrance

The next is the most difficult step to make, that involves your diet. You need to strip out ALL prepackaged foods NONE shall be ingested. Shift to a very bland, gluten free diet with only filtered water or very week tea to drink. Ask professionals about how to move to a stripped down basic diet which you can build back up later.

It will take a few weeks for your body to reset to this very strict environment, however you should start to feel better in the first few days. The next steps are to only add back those things you have taken away one at a time and with a 14 day (7X2) window between each one. Very detailed notes should be kept as to what you added and how you reacted to it. You are going to loose a year or more of your life in this detective process, however the end result will be well worth the effort.

You should start to feel better once everything has been removed and your environment sterilized. Keep detailed notes of what you removed and how you reacted and show them to your medical staff.